Wichita eagle., 1887-01-02
A JUDICIAL MURDER.

|
lin, a merchant, Lampert by name, mar
ried to q wife somewhat younger than him
self-a handsome woman, fond Of dress and
amusement. And by her he had daugh-
ter, whom the vain mother did her best to
spoil.
Every year Lampsrt went to the Leipsic
fair on business, and in the year 1870 he
resolved, as usual, to attend the fair.
On the evening before he was about to
start he called bis wife into their common
bedehamber, and asked her to assist him
in counting his money, which he kept in
strong iron double locked Golfer beneath
his bed.
He always carried his keys about with
him, never laying them aside. His wife at
| his summons came with candle into the
room, and he unlocked the chest in her pres
enoe, and brought out his money to tho
table, where hs purposed counting it and
taking from it the sum necessary for bis
travelling expenses and for the purchases be
intended making at the Leipsic fair.
The box contained a large purse OF leather,
wrapped round with cord and sealed with
| his own signet. Tho coin il contained con-
sisted OF French pistoies with tbs exception
OF SIX Dutch ducats.
Lam,eert found tho lock untampered with
and the leather purse as hs had left it,
bound with the string and with his seal IN
| bToken-in a word, all was in the condi-
tioa in which he had left it, exccpt the con-
tents of the purse. AS he counted the money
in the presence Of his wife, twelve pistoles
and one Of the six ducats wore missing
This discovery filed him and his wife with
disInay. They counted the money again,
they searched every corner Of tbs box,
turned the bag inside out, but could not
discover the smallest trace Of the missing z
coins. Lampsrt had written ticket Of
the amount, when he had inclosed it in the
bag, before he sealed it up. How had the
money besn distracted without breaking
the seals and getting the keys from the mer-
chants
The room occupied by Lampers and his
wife wss so situated that no stranger could
have entered it unobserved during ths day,
and it was quite certain that no robbers had
broken in during the night.
When the couple had recovered from their
first astonishment they considered who
could have done the deed, and they could
think Of no ons at all likely to be guilty of
the theft, except their housemaid, Marie
Keller, young woman Of 80
The merchant at once summoned her TO
the room and charged her with having
stolen the money. He promised her if she
would confess and make restitution that he
would forgive her, and though be would dis
miss her from his service he would hush
the matter up Tho girl tremblcd and
nearly tainted, but protested her inno-
cence, and so resolutely refused to allow
her guilt that Lampert and his vito insisted
on examining her bedroom. They made
| her lead the way with candle and stand in
the middle Of the room ohile her master
and mistress explored every corner, her
boxes, her bed, her drewers-in word,
every hidjn. place where she could have
slowed away the missing coins.
The search had lasted some time without
| producing any result, when Frau Lampert,
| feeling in the pocket of an old ragged dress
that lay on the floor, drew forth one of the
| Dutch ducets. When this was discovered
Marie Keller burst into tsars and with ve-
hemence ressseTted her innocence. She fell
on her knees before her master and mistress,
vowed that she had not taken any coin
| from their Golfer and declared her inabil-
| ity to account for the ducat having been
found in her pocket in any other way than
| by supposing some malev0lsnt person had
put 1T there to inculpats her, when she was
tests were coldly listened to and disregarded
The evidence Of tho ducat in her pocket
seemed conclusive to Lampert that she and
no stranger had robbed him.
According to Prueian law at the time,
those guilty Of theft were hanged if the
value Of the articles stolen amounted to five
| thaiers-or fifteen shillinss-and the thief
was more than 15 years old.
4 tr1 1A- hon
He was very angry ct tho loss Of his money,
and especially incensed At Marie's obstinacy
IN d.ayinE having taken it. He told his
wife that he would communicate with the
| police, have the girl arrested, and that he
would let haT suffer the consequences.
Frau La1nper6 urged him to be merciful
Let him pardon this first error in the poor
girls conduct, dismiss hsr and try to forget
his loss But Lampert would not bo racified.
Then she urged that tho law was cruelty
| severe, and that the sum Of money lost was
not one 80 great but that Laiapart would
scarcely feel it, and that ho woG!I b. GER
tain, lstar, to regret his harshne-ss in living
over to death girl who had yielded to
| first temptation, and had taken co..Ipara-
| lively insignificant SUN OF mOaoy.
He knew that it was poesiblo % closely
Quliires considerable t;yee = 10 bread must
be well worked, th, impression taken
while tks broad is soft then IL mus be al
lowed some days in which TO harden This
involved double opening ot his chest. once
to take the cast OF tho seal 2nd again to
steal the money and ressal tho bag But
how had Marie got hold Of his keys That
was impossible. IT, however, sho could
take the impress Of his seal, she could take
also that of the lock. So, be reasoned, tho
robbery lad been committed; but this
means adopted showed that tho girl was
adroit IN the art, and that in all probability
sha belonged to 4 gang OF thieves, This
suspicion was corroborated by tho fact that
none Of the money was recovered except one
ducat. Tho rest she had passed into the
hands Of her confederates.
Lsmpert, having turned 8 deaf car to his
wifc's reInonktrances went to the magis-
trate, ob:ainSd an order fer tho arrest of
Marie Keller, and a few hours later sac wcs
thrown into prison.
No sooner was this done than Frau Lam
pert sent TO Aarie's mother, a poor woman
living in Berlin. and requested that she
would como TO her. The poor womaa was
il great trouble; she could not balieve il
her daughters guilt, but was unable to
guess who was the thief Frau Lampert
told her that tho gi-l had been q good ser
want, aEd had never hitherto given her az
occasion 10 rnistrust her; Sd. added thas the
girl Esrie made great mistake in rsfusing
10 acknowledge her crime, and promised 10
give The mother the missing sun OF money
If Marie would confess her guilt, and refund
Lanpsrt through tho mother.
The old woman aecspted tss offer and
went 10 Isnpe-t. She told him that she
was heart broke, at the thought tAst Marie